The Divine Pursuer
Posted on Sep 11, 2016 by David Whetter
Grace and peace to you from God, our Creator, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit, who abides in each of us.
So often we speak about God’s presence with us as a blessing, and it is a blessing, but what we often forget is that God promises not only to be present with us in those times of joy, or in those times when we call upon God, but God is also in those moments when we wish he would leave us alone, or, even when we don’t want God in out lives.
Somehow over the centuries, we have created an image of God that depicts her as meekly and timidly waiting for us to seek her out, waiting passively on the sidelines for us to discover our need for her in our lives. It puts the responsibility on us to “find” God. But today, Jesus wants us to know that that is not the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. That is not the God that claims us in the waters of our baptism. The parables that Jesus shares with us today show us that God is as one scholar writes “an active divine pursuer” who comes after us even when we don’t want him to. This Divine Pursuer” comes after us even when we think ourselves unworthy.
Our story today begins with grumbling. Luke writes, “Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to [Jesus.] And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.” (15:1-2). These religious leaders don’t like the fact that Jesus willingly accepts people like tax collectors and other sinners in his presence. Now, before we get too high and mighty in condemning these folks for grumbling, let’s make sure we understand what their concern was about. First, according to Jewish tradition, if one follows the law, then one ought not hang around with known sinners, even Paul said, “do not be deceived, bad company ruins good morals” (1 Cor. 15:33). And secondly, tax collectors were not only sinners, they were also law-breakers and they collaborated with the enemy of the Jewish people, the Roman authorities. The Jewish religious leaders were only attempting to be faithful to God and God’s ways when they grumbled. We still grumble about such things, don’t we? After all, we don’t like it when our leaders meet with those who we deem unworthy.
In our own faith tradition, there are many who grumble when we welcome the LBGTQ community into our midst. There are many who grumble when we sit at the table with the Roman Catholic leaders and work toward coming together. There many who grumble when we sit with those of other races, other religions, other cultures because they do not act, think, or believe as we believe. On a day of remembrance like today, September 11, there are many who grumble when we sit at the table with Muslim leaders and speak of coming together because for many, remembering 9/11 is about seeking revenge and not reconciliation. The grumblings of those Pharisees and scribes were no different than our grumbling today. In the midst of the grumblings, both then and now, Jesus offers these parables as a way of helping us understand God’s divine purpose for each of us who, too, are just like those tax collectors and sinners.
Jesus hears the grumbling and in response he says, “Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it?” Now, for a long time I read this story as if Jesus was talking to the shepherds, and if that is the case, then the logical answer to Jesus’ question of who would go after the “one lost sheep” would be no one. It wouldn’t make sense to leave all those sheep unguarded and go after one sheep who got lost. The shepherds needed to protect the flock. But, what if Jesus wasn’t talking to the shepherds, but to those whom the shepherds worked for, the owners of the sheep. What if Jesus was saying, which of you owners, realizing that part of your investment had been lost wouldn’t try to regain your investment. And then once you get back what you had lost back, which of you doesn’t celebrate the return of your investment?
In these parables, Jesus reminds us that our God, the great landowner, the owner of all creation, desires to lose nothing. God’s divine purpose is to pursue all of his creation until it is back in the fold. Think about these two parables today. In both cases, the lost sheep and the lost coin, neither are really capable of finding their way back. Even if the sheep tried, it would most likely be killed in the wilderness and the coin has not ability to return. In both cases, the action is taken by the owner, not the one who is lost. The owner of the sheep “leaves, goes after, calls together, and rejoices.” The woman “lights a lamp, sweeps and searches.” It is always the owner who pursues.
Anne Rice is an author who for years wrote novels in the genre of gothic fiction. Whether you have read her books or not, most of us would at least recognize the title of what is considered her most famous series of novels, The Vampire Chronicles. Rice was raised in the Catholic tradition, but as a young adult became an atheist. So it came as quite a surprise when in her late fifties she announced that she would no longer write those gothic fiction stories and only write about God. You see, Anne Rice came to know this “Divine Pursuer” in her own life and Anne, as broken as she was, was found. In her 2009 book entitled, Called Out of Darkness, Rice wrote, “I became convinced that I was being pursued by the Lord. I did not think literally, “He is pursuing me.” After all, he wasn’t supposed to exist. He was supposed to be an idea. He was “located” in nostalgia. I thought something is pursuing me. Something is happening” (167). Anne Rice had turned from God and God’s ways, but God never let her go. God pursued her and this same God pursues you and me.
To be quite honest, though, as I stand here saying that, down deep I am also saying to myself, that is true, but not for me. I have done wrong too many times for God to seek me out. I have failed too many people for this God to want me. I too often failed to confess my sin and there is no way God could love a sinner like me. And, yet, as Saint Paul wrote in his letter to the Romans, “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (8:38-39).
Brothers and sisters, we are those who grumble about those others who we think are unworthy. We are those who remember today how the world changed 15 ago when almost 3000 people lost their lives and who now look at he world with cynicism and sometimes with hatred toward others. And yet, we are those tax collectors and sinners who Jesus invites to his table of bread and wine today.
Like Anne Rice, may you come to know that today, you are being pursued by the Lord. This day, and every day, the Divine Pursuer is seeking you, so you, too, might come to know the love of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.